FunEmployment: For some, economic downtime is personally enriching

Aug. 1, 2009

Steve Flores played with sons Joaquin, 5, and Diego Miguel, 3, on their backyard playground. Flores was laid off from his job as a communications manager in November. / Photos by Kylene Lloyd, The Courier-Journal

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Steve Flores has the benefit of a gainfully employed spouse, Jessica. "I have a very understanding and supportive wife," he said. They enjoyed happy hour Maido Japanese restaurant.

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At about 2 o'clock each afternoon, Steve Flores puts his young sons down for a nap. And then he takes one.

For Flores, an Old Louisville resident who was laid off from his job as a communications manager last November, midday siestas are a restful perk of “funemployment.”

What is “funemployment?” It's people having a good time despite a lack of a job and that little thing known as a paycheck.

Many Louisvillians are finding that being out of work doesn't have to be a total drag, and they're doing a fine job turning their joblessness into an extended version of “Ferris Bueller's Day Off.”

Rather than freaking out, they're taking road trips, filling up on Louisville's free entertainment and cultural offerings and spending quality time with family and friends.

The funemployed are often looking for jobs, but are fortunate enough to have the means to survive in the meantime.

Flores has the benefit of a gainfully employed spouse, which makes his funemployment possible.

“I have a very understanding and supportive wife. She says to go out and have some fun,” he says. “She said it would be nice if I stayed unemployed through summer.”

Flores is now a full-time playmate for sons Joaquin, 5, and Diego Miguel, 3. The three recently took a two-week road trip to Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana. Flores says he's never before had the chance to spend such a big slice of time with his kids.

He and the boys also have spent their days splashing in the Jewish Community Center pool, and recently, they went canoeing on the Blue River, stopping to pick blueberries at a farm along the way. Flores' wife, Jessica, also took part in that outing. She joins them when she can work it into her schedule.

Her husband also manages to entertain himself. Happy hours have become a weekday-evening ritual. On Tuesdays, he and friends drink bargain beers at Cumberland Brews, and on other nights, they munch Maido's low-price happy-hour sushi or hit another favorite haunt.

His days of funemployment also feature leisurely lunches with friends and cool concerts, such as Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction in Indianapolis and Flight of the Conchords in Austin, Texas.

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Flores flew to Austin on his own to visit relatives, and bought a discounted FOTC ticket from a scalper just before a show. He seems to have the funemployment thing down.

“I've been laid off before, so I've been through the routine,” Flores says. “We managed back then, so I figured we could manage again.”

Other funemployees also are going beyond Louisville for some of their thrills.

James Kemp, 39, got a rare opportunity to hop on a motorcycle and cruise the coast. The Highlands resident, who lost his job as a home-supply vendor last summer, was asked by a bike-buying friend to fly to Florida, pick up his latest purchase in Sarasota and ride it back home. The friend paid the airfare.

If not for funemployment, he would never have had the freedom to be an easy-riding explorer.

“I would assume for most people, it would be a shirking of responsibility to do something like that,” says Kemp, who lives in the Highlands. “I jumped at the chance. I didn't even think about it. I just did it.”

The journey opened his eyes to a completely new part of the country.

“I'd never been to Florida, I'd never seen the Gulf of Mexico, and I'd never seen the Atlantic Ocean, and I got to do that all at once,” he says. “It was a bunch of firsts.”

Damion Waldbrunn, 32, a Highlands resident laid off from his job at a credit-card company in April 2008, says he has been frugal enough to qualify for funemployment.

“If I know the bills are paid, I wake up in peace,” he says. “I've never slept the sleep of the unemployed.”

His son Jheryd, 8, is key to Waldbrunn's enjoyment of unemployment. He's been attending all of Jheryd's chess team matches and even accompanied him to a tournament in Nashville, Tenn.

He also is devoting as much time as possible to his passion:

“I'm living off my artwork and trying to get my name out there as an artist,” says Waldbrunn, a comic-book illustrator, graphic designer and animator.

Funemployment hasn't hindered his job search. He checks monster.com and craisglist.com every day and says he still would rather be working.

“The structure will be pleasantly appreciated,” he says.

Daniel Taleghani, 28, who was let go from Kroger last fall, says he loves being free from the shackles of work.

Waking up around 10 or 11 in the morning has been a welcome relief.

“I don't have to worry that I have to get to work on time or that I have to wear this crappy uniform,” he says. “I enjoy it.”

Taleghani is also a student at the University of Louisville, and his dad has agreed to help him financially until he graduates.

Despite Taleghani's lack of spending money, he hasn't cut down on culture. He takes advantage of free concerts and the monthly First Friday Trolley Hops.

He's also planning on expanding his mind in his free time, and he has great literary goals: He's ready to tackle Tolstoy's “War and Peace” — plus a bounty of comic books.

“When I was working and going to school, they piled up,” he says. “I've got almost two years' worth of comic books to catch up on.”